Hail, Royals

After an exciting Wold Series which included clutch plays, performances, and late-inning heroics, the Kansas City Royals stand atop Major League Baseball as World Champions.  They pretty much excelled at each aspect of the game, and won their championship on New York turf, which seemed kind of poetic given all of the struggles that the team had with the Yankees back in the 70's and 80's.

Back then, I adopted KC as my second favorite team.  I did so for two reasons:

1) It was led by George Brett; arguably the best player in the league.  He was a terror in the clutch, a gold glove winner in the field, and legitimately flirted with a .400 average.  He was a complete, all-around ballplayer, and he was my hero.  I still remember very clearly sitting on my couch in college and watching Brett take the congratulatory call from President Reagan after the '85 World Series victory.  It was the cherry on top of Brett's amazing career.

2) It was my Grandma's favorite team.  She lived in KC, and was always a sports fan, but she had a special place for her beloved Royals.  Part of it had to do with them being the hometown team.  Part of it had to be because they were really, really good in the late 70's through the mid 80's.  And part of it had to do with how they looked.

Which brings us to Clint Hurdle, pictured above.  She was one of Grandma's favorite players - not because he was good (which he most certainly was not).  It was because, in her words, "he's gooood lookin'."

Somewhere, I have to believe that Grandma is happy about this latest crop of Royals.  They play the game the right way.  They've done Kansas City proud.  They're World Champions.  And, at least some of them, they're still pretty gooood lookin'.